Feb. 9, 2010

Game Notes in Printable PDF Format

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Six games remain for LMU in West Coast Conference action, four come on the road, starting with a road trip to the Bay Area to take on Santa Clara, Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. It is a key stretch for the Lions as they battle teams bunched with them in the standings with a first-round bye in the upcoming Zappos.com WCC Men's Basketball Championship held in Las Vegas at stake. The game can be heard live on KXLU 88.9 FM and on LMULions.com.

INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions, who do not feature a senior on the roster and are starting four sophomores and a junior, already have surpassed their win total of the last two seasons combined and are 12-12 overall and 3-5 in the WCC. The Lions' roster is ranked 300 out of 343 NCAA Division-I teams in terms of experience but still managed to have their longest win streak since the 1995-96 season (6 games), the most non-conference wins since that season (9) and won three straight road games for the first time since they won their last road game of 1994-95 and first two road games of the 95-96 campaign. They hadn't won three straight road games in one season since 1991-92. The Lions enter the game against Santa Clara averaging 76.1 points per game, which is the most by a Lions' squad since they averaged 91.1 on the 91-92 team 18 years ago. Two of the Lions' wins this season have come on the road against teams from the "Power 6" conferences (Nov. 21 at USC, 67-59; Dec. 12 at Notre Dame, 87-85).

SEEING DOUBLES
Thanks to Kevin Young's 21-point average over the past three games, the Lions now have five players averaging double figures, led by sophomore Drew Viney, who leads the team in scoring at 17.0 points per contest and rebounds at 7.0 per contest. The first-year player who transferred from Oregon in 2008, has three double-doubles this season and has averaged 24.5 points the last two games and has 20 or more points in the three of the last four. He is ranked fourth in the WCC in scoring and fifth in rebounds. He missed the games against USF and Santa Clara due to pain in his right tibia and returned with 18 points against Portland and 20 points, nine rebounds against Gonzaga. Vernon Teel is second on the team at 14.4 points per game, going for a career-best 27 against Gonzaga. Teel has been the spark plug for the Lions, earning a pair of WCC Player of the Week honors and December Player of the Month honors. He enters the game against Pepperdine ranked 8th in the nation (as of Feb. 7) and first in the WCC in assists at 6.25 per game. He has been flirting with a triple-doubles this season and also averages 5.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals. Sophomore Jarred DuBois returned to the Lions line-up against Pepperdine and put in 15 points to raise his average to 12.9 on the season and is second for the Lions with 43 three-pointers while hitting at a 41.3 percent clip. He enters the Santa Clara game ranked 16th in the WCC in scoring and 5th in three-pointers made with 2.2. As for Young, he is now averaging 11.0 points (21st in WCC) and 5.4 rebounds (13th) per game. Junior Larry Davis is fifth on the team with 10.4 points per contest.

INJURY UPDATE
The busiest man on the LMU roster has been head trainer Keith Ellison. The injury bug is hitting the Lions once again as conference play heats up. The Lions featured their ninth different starting line-up against the Zags. Here is why: Ashley Hamilton suffered a MCL tear in his right knee at the start of the second half of the Portland game and missed three games. He returned Saturday against Pepperdine and played 18 minutes. Jarred DuBois, who had played every game of his young career, has not played the last four games due to dehydration. He spent Wednesday, Jan. 20, in a Portland hospital taking fluids and has yet to regain his strength and has not played since. He earned the start against Pepperdine Saturday, scoring 15 points in 33 minutes. Junior Larry Davis has played just 13 games on the year after having surgery on his Achilles Tendon in the off season. He has not played since Jan. 21 (Portland) and continues to deal with pain in that foot from a stress reaction and is out two-four weeks. Freshman Given Kalipinde missed six games with an ankle sprain and returned against USF. He sprained the same right ankle against Pepperdine Saturday and played just nine minutes. He is doubtful for the trip to the bay area. It all started with freshmen Edgar Garibay and Quincy Lawson, who will miss the rest of the 2009-10 season due to injuries. Garibay will miss the season after tearing his left ACL in the game against UC Santa Barbara. He had started four games and was averaging 7.4 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds per contest. Lawson will have surgery to his left hip after injuring it during the opening weekend. Both will apply for medical redshirts following the conclusion of this season.

SO CLOSE
The 2009-10 season is not one for the faint of heart. The Lions have had 14 of their 24 games decided by less than 10 points and they are 6-8 in those games, 1-2 in WCC play, after defeating San Diego by three, 68-65, on Thursday. Seven of the Lions' 12 setbacks have come by six points or less, and combined are at an average of four points per game. In all seven of those games, the Lions were tied or held a lead with under three minutes to play.

2009-10 QUICK HITTERS
• The Lions improved to 9-1 on the season when they outscore their opponents in points off turnovers. In the 16-point win over Pepperdine, the Lions outscored the Waves 20-2 in points off turnovers. Offense from their defense has been key all season as they held Pepperdine to 61 points on 35 percent shooting, all season lows in conference play. The defense also has the Lions among the top in the WCC in terms of defense. The Lions had 16 steals in the win over North Dakota. They did one better against AAU, collecting 17. That total equals the most steals in a single game since they had 17 in an 83-79 overtime loss to Portland on Feb. 16, 2002. They have 177 through 24 games this season, an average of 7.39 per game, which is tops in the WCC. At the same point last year, they had 128 steals. The Lions are also second in the WCC in blocks with 4.4 per game (106 total). They had 55 all of last year.
• The Lions set the tone for their scoring right out of the gates in the first two games of the season, going for more than 80 points in consecutive games since the 2005-06 season. In the final game of the decade, they scored 104 against Seattle, cracking the century mark for the first time since Jan. 29, 1998. The Lions have now had a 100-point game in every decade since the 1940s, a decade in which they missed three seasons due to World War II. The Lions have 11 80-plus games on the season, six more than the total of the previous three seasons combined. The Lions are averaging 20.4 more points than a year ago, putting in 76.1 points per game this season, after averaging just 55.7 a year ago. The Lions are third in the WCC in scoring and 47th out of 334 schools nationally (Jan. 31). The Lions had just one game of 70 or more points a year ago, after 24 games this season they have 16.
• The Lions finished the game against Seattle attempting just seven three-pointers, hitting four of them (57.1 percent). But they dominated in the paint and finished the game shooting 59.3 percent (32-for-54) from the field. Since 1998, it matches the third highest shooting percentage since going 32-for-54 against Vanguard on Nov. 17, 2000. They shot 62.3 percent in a win over Texas A&M on Dec. 2, 2001 and 60.9 percent in a 74-71 win over Santa Clara on Jan. 27, 2007. On the season they are shooting 45.6 percent from the field, which is fourth in the WCC, and 38.8 percent from long distance, which is third in the WCC and 28th nationally (as of Feb. 7).
• The injury bug has once again been a thorn to the Lions this season, featuring 10 different starting line-ups this season, coming full circle and starting the same line-up in game #24 against Pepperdine as they did in Game #1. They were forced to change their starting line-up for the sixth time on the season with the injury to Viney against San Francisco. They started their seventh different line-up against Santa Clara. They then made an eighth change with the injury to DuBois and then the ninth with the injury to Hamilton. LMU then had their 10th different line-up against San Diego. This came after the Lions had finally found a consistent line-up after losing Edgar Garibay for the season and Larry Davis for eight games throughout the start of the year. The most consistent line-up was with Viney, Vernon Teel, Jarred DuBois, Kevin Young and Hamilton. They had a record of 5-1.